I was recently involved in a conversation about what was wrong with the current version of the Windows Logo Program. The general consensus was that while it, in and of it self, was a good thing to have and promote, too many of the ISVs (Independent Software Vendors), especially the smaller ones who focus on specific niche markets, simply can’t afford certification, either due to the actual price of the evaluation (especially for server applications) or due to the resource and time cost to upgra...

Cory Doctorow gave an excellent talk on the Microsoft Redmond Campus which was about digital rights management (DRM) and why it's not a good idea. He then posted the transcript to the internet under a copy-left style license so everyone can see what he had to say to us. He made some good points that really resonated with the "User Experience" champion in me - though somehow I doubt the people working on DRM were listening. ...

An user-experience focused article about the Butterfly Ballot fiasco from early 2001 - it is just as relevant now as when it was written....

A few random thoughts about user experience and the "IT Pro". All too often, UX professionals find focused on the experience and usability of end-user client tools, with the result that the the day-to-day experience of the IT Pro, the men and women who have to install, monitor and maintain the servers the end users depend on, is ignored. I'd love to see this attitude change - after all, "IT Pros" are people too. ...

Eric Raymond, self-appointed spokesperson for the Open Source movement, recently wrote a few articles complaining about the poor state of UI design in many open source projects. A superficial response to this might be "good, the Linux guys are admitting they have cruddy interfaces and that they need to lift their game". But John Gruber has written a much more devastating analysis of Raymond's comments....

The obligatory first post, introducing myself to whoever happens to be reading my blog. :-)...